The Express Media Server is a set of software modules that reside co-resident with the Application Server software. During installation, you will have the option to choose either the Hardware Media Server or the Express Media Server. For details about the EMS, see the Express Media Server Requirements.

If you include Cisco WebEx Node for MCS as part of your deployment, you must have at least two nodes built (one as the primary and one as the secondary MBD) before installing your first Cisco WebEx Node for MCS.

Software

Cisco WebEx Node Release 8.5

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Release 8.5 does not support an upgrade of Cisco WebEx Node for MCS to release 8.5 from a previous release. All installations of Cisco WebEx Node for MCS must be new installations.

Event Center and Training Center are not supported on Apple Mac systems.

Event Center supports the Audio Broadcast feature that reduces the need for all participants to dial into a MeetingPlace audio meeting. Connection to the audio system is limited to those participants designated as Speakers. All other attendees receive the audio, video, and web conferencing components in multiple HTTPS streams via their PC.

If your site is on a version earlier than WBS 27 SP25, contact your Cisco WebEx Customer Support Engineer (CSE) to request an upgrade to the minimum version required for use with Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Release 8.5.

You must have both WBS 27 SP27 and WebEx XML API Release 5.7 or later to use the WebEx-MeetingPlace Automatic Configuration feature.

WBS27 FR23 and later offers a new capability for supporting Dual Audio vendors on the same WebEx Site. For more information, see the "New Features" section of the Release Notes for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Release 8.5.

Network Based Recordings (NBR) are not supported for internal meetings on systems configured with Cisco WebEx Node on MCS or UCS. NBR are fully supported for all meeting types on systems configured for Cisco Webex Node on ASR.

The WebEx end-user client interface supports any HTTP or SOCKS proxy server based on browser settings.

License Requirements

This release of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace uses active host-based licensing. The system uses an audit mechanism to track the number of users who have actively created meetings and compares that to the number of licenses that are installed. An alarm is raised when the number of user who create meetings exceeds the number of licenses installed.

Licenses are for both audio conferencing and standards-based video conferencing in Cisco Unified MeetingPlace.

If you have no licenses installed the system will allow only a single meeting at a time.

Integration Requirements

Deployments configured for WebEx-scheduling use WebEx Productivity Tools. For more information, see the Productivity Tools Release Notes available from the Support > User Guides link on your Cisco WebEx Site or by accessing the WebEx Productivity Tools section from the following link: http://support.webex.com/support/system-requirements.html

Deployment Requirements

Nodes

The MeetingPlace Application Server has two separate functions that may be active on the same node or may be separated between nodes.

Meeting Director nodes: The Meeting Director module controls where meetings are placed. It also maintains communication with WebEx. We recommend that you have two “Meeting Director” nodes in a system so that if one fails the control is automatically passed to the backup.

Conferencing nodes: The Conferencing module controls the traditional audio/video conferencing. The Meeting Director assigns meetings to a specific Conferencing node. When a call comes into a conferencing node but the user wants to attend a meeting on a different conferencing node then the call is referred to the target node.

In small systems up to four nodes, you can place the Meeting Director and Conferencing functions on the same node. Whenever the system is larger we recommend that the Meeting Director run on a node with no Conferencing.

The Release 8.5 system supports up to 16 nodes.

Sites

Groups of nodes are organized into a site. We recommend that the nodes within a site are homogenous so that the user experience is common within all nodes of a site. Release 8.5 supports a maximum of four nodes per site.

Redundancy

When sizing a system, we recommend that you size each site for the desired number of conferencing nodes and then add one additional node. For example, if a site requires 3000 ports we recommend that you include three nodes that each have a capacity of 1500 ports for a total of 4500 ports. This ensures that you will support full capacity while simultaneously servicing any one node.

Adding a new node requires a maximum latency of 200 ms RTT (there is a timeout after 30 minutes)

DNS Recommendations

All FQDNs of Meeting Director Nodes (if applicable), Conferencing Nodes and Cisco WebEx Nodes are required for DNS resolution between all servers

No multiple names to IPs

Reverse IP lookup required

Classless DNS not supported

Customer Network to Cisco WebEx Cloud Requirements

Meeting Director to Cisco WebEx cloud must be able to establish connections outbound TCP 443 only to the Internet (only SOCKS proxy is supported)

Bandwidth for TSP API and user profile synchronization is minimal

Cisco WebEx Node for ASR or MCS must be able to establish connections outbound TCP 443 only to the Internet (no web proxy supported)

Bandwidth is dependent on the total number of external meetings with data sharing in progress; what is being shared affects bandwidth used. Internal Meetings do not have any bandwidth impact to the Cisco WebEx collaboration cloud.

Incoming Ports Used in WebEx-Scheduling Deployments

Use these tables to make sure that your firewalls do not block access from Cisco Unified MeetingPlace to users or integrated systems, and to make sure that you do not block communication among the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace components and servers.

Outgoing Ports Used in WebEx-Scheduling Deployments

Use these tables to make sure that your firewalls do not block access from Cisco Unified MeetingPlace to users or integrated systems, and to make sure that you do not block communication among the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace components and servers.

Telephony Service provider (TSP) Links dual to Cisco WebEx cloud via internet outbound only. There are two socket connections with SSLv3. Enabled to communicate to the Cisco WebEx cloud outbound. No HTTPS proxy is supported (SOCKS proxy can be configured).

Only outbound firewall to Cisco WebEx cloud, TSP then is a two-way API data stream

HTTP

Both Meeting Directors

Each Conference node

TCP

61080

To Meeting Broker Director on Meeting Director nodes from Meeting Broker Agent on each Conference node

--

HTTPS

Both Meeting Directors

Each Conference node

TCP

61443

To Meeting Broker Director on Meeting Director nodes from Meeting Broker Agent on all Conference nodes

--

Application Server/ Express Media Server

MP_REPL

Application Servers

Meeting Directors

TCP

2008

Database replication between the Conference nodes and both Meeting Directors

Optional, only if failover is configured

XML

Application Server (leaf nodes)

Two Meeting Director nodes

TCP

10443

All leaf Conference nodes initiate TSPP on both Meeting Director nodes from Cisco WebEx Adapter on both primary and secondary MDs; persistent connections

Tunnel control and meeting information from the Cisco WebEx Node to the Cisco WebEx cloud. Multiple outbound TCP 443 connections will be created to the Cisco WebEx cloud as external meetings are started. Shared content is sent to the Cisco WebEx cloud for guest users to view during meetings. No Web HTTPS or SOCKS proxy is allowed from the Cisco WebEx Node to the Cisco WebEx cloud.

Only outbound firewall to Internet, these TCP connections also check for NTP clocking to synch to the Cisco WebEx cloud for correct conferencing time coordination.